Jack and I loved this only-slightly-fictionalized story of the actual meeting between the two disparate personalities on December 21, 1970, with Michael Shannon's and Kevin Spacey's tours de force in the title roles and many laughs. Shannon and Spacey (last blogged for Freeheld and Horrible Bosses 2 and, of course, Spacey plays a tricky politician on 52 episodes of House of Cards) inhabit their characters so fully it's almost jarring at the end to see the actual Presley and Nixon in vintage photos.
When I panned Colin Hanks' performance in The Great Buck Howard, he had not yet come into his own. I'm now a fan, due to his TV work in Dexter and especially Fargo and Life in Pieces. Here he adds much, playing Egil "Bud" Krogh, a Nixon advisor who later became one of the White House "Plumbers." Handsome Alex Pettyfer (mentioned in Magic Mike) has some range as Elvis' right hand man Jerry Schilling.
The script is credited to Katey Sagal's younger brother Joey, his ex-wife Hanala Sagal, and actor Carey Elwes. It's a screenwriting debut for all three and both men were considered to play Elvis. Sagal does appear as an Elvis impersonator in an airport scene. Director Liza Johnson has made three previous features which look interesting but I haven't seen them. She will be someone to watch in the future.
There are no songs by Elvis in this movie. There are, however, six kickass tracks from the period (it seems like many more) listed here. The original compositions by Ed Shearmur (blogged for Before I Go to Sleep) can be sampled on youtube and amazon.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics are averaging 75% and its audiences 80. We grade it higher than that. With many closeups (and Amazon Studios credited as the main production company), there's no need to see it on the big screen if you have other priorities, But see it you should!
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